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compose key fails on some ligatures

Submitted by markp0

Assigned to Xorg Project Team

Link to original bug (#84341)

Description

OVERVIEW: As far as I can tell, the compose key works in every program for most characters. But in these Linux releases... LinuxMint 17 64bit (Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, Xfce) kubuntu and xubuntu 14.04.1 64bit ...some ligatures don't work.

For example, the compose key correctly produces these ligatures: <compose> o e = œ <compose> O E = Œ <compose> a e = æ <compose> A E = Æ

but the compose key fails to produce these ligatures: <compose> f f = ff <compose> f i = fi <compose> f l = fl <compose> F i = ffi <compose> F l = ffl <compose> I J = IJ <compose> I j = IJ <compose> i j = ij

It does not appear to be an issue of an incompatible font -- as far as I can see, the special characters will always appear if I copy them from a character map and paste them (into any program). I'm also able to successfully generate the ligatures in vim, e.g.: <Ctrl-k> i j = ij

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Assign a compose key:

    a) LinuxMint 17 Cinnamon, LinuxMint 17 MATE: System Settings [or Control Center] > Keyboard > Layouts [or Keyboard layouts] > Options > Position of Compose key > [assign a key and close window]

    b) LinuxMint 17 KDE, Kubuntu 14.04.1: System Settings > Input Devices > Keyboard > Advanced > Position of Compose Key > [assign a key, click Apply and close window]

    c) LinuxMint 17 Xfce, Xubuntu 14.04.1: Settings [or Settings Manager] > Keyboard > Layout > [uncheck "Use system defaults"] > Compose key > [assign a key and close window]

  2. Open a program that displays characters as you type (I get the same results with firefox, Konsole, gedit, Kate, LibreOffice Writer, LibreOffice Calc, etc.)

  3. Type: <compose> a e Type: <compose> f i

ACTUAL RESULTS: After the first 3-key sequence, the ae ligature (æ) is output to the screen. After the second 3-key sequence, the cursor remains where it is and no new character appears.

EXPECTED RESULTS: After the second 3-key sequence, the fi ligature (fi) should be output to the screen.

LINUX RELEASES AFFECTED BY THIS BUG: Here are some Linux releases where the compose key fails to output the ligatures described above. I've included the output of `uname -a' for each release I tested.

LinuxMint 17 64bit Cinnamon LinuxMint 17 64bit MATE LinuxMint 17 64bit Xfce uname -a: Linux mint 3.13.0-24-generic #46 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

LinuxMint 17 64bit KDE: uname -a: Linux mint 3.13.0-24-generic #47 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 2 23:30:00 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

kubuntu 14.04.1 64bit xubuntu 14.04.1 64bit uname -a: Linux kubuntu 3.13.0-32-generic #57 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux uname -a: Linux xubuntu 3.13.0-32-generic #57 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

LINUX RELEASES NOT AFFECTED BY THIS BUG: Here are some Linux releases where the compose key succeeds in outputting the ligatures described above. I've included the output of `uname -a' for each release I tested.

Ubuntu 14.04.1 64bit (with Unity) Ubuntu 14.04.1 64bit (with GNOME) Lubuntu 14.04.1 64bit uname -a: Linux ubuntu 3.13.0-32-generic #57 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux uname -a: Linux ubuntu-gnome 3.13.0-32-generic #57 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux uname -a: Linux lubuntu 3.13.0-32-generic #57 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: All the releases I tested were from official Live CDs except LinuxMint KDE, which is a more recent update than what's on the Live CD. All of them had a Compose file containing the ligatures in questions, and they all responded the same way to these commands:

$ echo $LANG en_US.UTF-8

$ echo $TERM xterm

$ grep fi /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose <Multi_key> <f> <i> : "fi" Ufb01 # LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FI

I've also posted bug reports of this in these places: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=225&t=122909 https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1372041

Thanks.

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